Sweet Potato Biscuits

This is one of my favorite flavor combinations. I've been searching for a while for a good sweet potato biscuit recipe. I have found it! 

One of my favorite places for sweet potato biscuits closed a few years ago. It was an old family run business. I did a random search online for their recipe and surprise surprise, they had published it in the newspaper years ago (people used to do things like that a long time ago). 

I found it on Pinterest, where I don't have an account. So, I took a screenshot and zoomed in on the photo to read the recipe. 

I cut the sugar down by half a cup and cut the butter in half, but they still taste pretty spot on. The recipe made 36. 

We are eating them with ham tonight!! Ham was on sale for $0.77/lb. you can't beat that price for meat. I am proud of myself. I sliced and trimmed the whole ham today. Hams have a way of sitting in my refrigerator and not being used up because it seems so daunting to slice pieces off. But that is all finished now! I have a container of nice slices of ham and the bone is boiling on the stove. Hopefully, I will have time to turn the broth into some baked cheesy grits.   

The baby loves them. He's had three. Martin isn't quite sure what he thinks. 

Devotions

For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotions than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await others. I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotions, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hands. 

C.S. Lewis

House divided

I am a huge UNC fan!! They are normally really great at basketball and okay at football. Speaking of which, this year in basketball was such an amazing year. I didn't expect them to win the ACC championship and I thought for sure they would be the first #1 seed eliminated. They proved me wrong and it was such a fun year to watch. 

Jared is a huge Georgia fan. They normally stink at basketball, but are great at football. 

Our teams rarely play each other in either sport, which means we can cheer for the other person's favorite team. However, this year, for the first time in 45 years, they will play in football. It is the first game of the season. I've polled the members of our household and our votes are in:

I am way outnumbered! 

That is really a lot of red...

Voting day!

We walked to go vote today. The lady at the polling place gave both boys stickers. Warren cried. 

"Why I have a voting sticker and I no vote?" - Martin

Then we came home and ate lunch on the picnic table and played in the yard.  This baby is going to be trouble when he grows a bit bigger. 

Martin doesn't try to escape. He's happy playing with a stick and a ball. 

Baseball game

Martin went to his first baseball game this past Monday. Jared took him while I stayed home with the baby. The baby went to bed and I read my new book! 

He has been talking and talking about it ever since. He even got his own baseball, which we had to explain doesn't happen every time. :)  

The rest of the week we spent sick with colds, an abscess tooth (the same one as in October - which now they think needs to be removed - happy for a final answer and hopefully the end of five years of trouble), and a stomach bug. Ugh. I am ready for some weeks of being healthy. 

Maybe I'll have more to say when my energy returns. 

New book! So excited!

I actually received a box of 21 new books today. 16 of them are presents. That leave 5 for me to read!! 

The baby is in bed and the other two are at a baseball game. Time for some good, quiet, uninterrupted reading time!! 

We do a lot of this.

This is the boys (and my) favorite book. It is Richard Scary's The Best Word Book Ever. 

It has the greatest pictures for asking questions and explaining things. Once the boys have hit around 18 months they start recognizing things inside and outside the book that are the same (ie. That's a chair in the book and right across the room is a chair). They have both enjoyed it before that age, but it is even more fun when they are interacting with the pictures. I remember loving this book at a child. I am glad that I still do and that my boys love it too. I can't say enough good things about it. 

Note: I don't know if there is an updated version. We have the 1963 version. I love it. I wouldn't want to see an updated version. Who wants to look at pictures of people staring at a tv or computer or phone? Boring. I like the old fashion playground and tools. Most everything else is up-to-date. 

One of my favorite things...

I doesn't happen much, but combine a bit of a cold, playing outside, and a late night and it is the perfect recipe for this. I just love him and I wish he'd stop growing up. 

I've been battling this awful chest cold this week. It has completely worn me out. Yesterday, I told the kids, "I am just going to lie on the couch while you play. I am so tired."

He said, "Mom, if you are tired, you should go sleep in your room. We can play out here while you sleep." 

This has nothing to do with either of the above two paragraphs other than it is about Martin. Jared says I should stop answering his why questions in so much detail because it makes him ask even more questions.  I don't care. I want my kids to explore and ask questions and learn so much more than I know about the world and everything God has created!!! 

Bookworms

It was really quiet in my house today while I was getting dressed. I found them reading in their room. 

We love Richard Scary word books in our house. I think these are the Greatest Eord Book Ever and the Best Storybook Ever.  I don't like some of the newer stuff, but I love the old stories and pictures (I think these are copyrighted in the 1950s or 60s). My parents bought Martin this six foot long Richard Scary board game that is pretty awesome too. 

Pyrex Love

Has anyone seen these new retro bowls at Target?!? I am a sucker for all things Pyrex in antique stores. I want to buy them all. Thankful, I have a small kitchen and can't. But seriously, I love all these patterns. The stripes are probably my least favorite, but I'd take them. 

Someday, maybe I'll need these. :) and more polish pottery too... 

Not Friday, but my craft post

It would be so much easier if the app had a way to schedule posts ahead of time, but since it doesn't and I did something crafty today, you get a craft post today. 

Our church has a silent auction and coffee house each year to raise money for various things, usually youth related. I had this table runner almost made for about four or five years.  I've never really liked it. The back is just some squares pieced together. 

So, I threw in some binding and still didn't like it that much... It needed something to go along with it. My sister-in-law makes little felt ornaments and sells them on etsy (which is another failing of the app that I can't add a link). I thought I would make a little stuffed ornament to go along with it. 

I was inspired by the fact that I woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground, in April. What?!? It was a pretty surprise, but what?!? It was 65 degrees yesterday. 

And here is the back modeled by Martin. He really wanted to help out. 

Here is the web address for my sister-in-law's shop(if you look under reviews you will see examples of her Christmas ornaments. She is much more creative than I am. Jared's whole family is a bunch of creative geniuses. That is why he wraps the Christmas presents in our house. I'd just use newspaper):

https://www.etsy.com/shop/linnearuth?ref=listing-shop2-all-items-count#items

Chicken update and Brain Attics

I forgot to take a picture today while it was daylight. However, I wanted to mention how entertaining these chickens are. I go out to change their water or give them more food and I end up watching them run around for 5-10 minutes. They are also becoming more friendly and will perch on your hand if they are in the right mood. After three weeks, I am still a big fan. :) 

Also, the coop has a door made. All the other supplies have been purchased and some cut. Jared worked all day in the rain on it for me. This can count as my Christmas and birthday gift for several years. 

And lastly, a Random Sherlock Holmes quote that my sister and I were discussing and I just wanted an excuse to include it in a post. I find it somewhat useful when considering which facts to remember and which not to bother thinking about: 

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that this little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for any addition of knowledge, you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones. 

A Study in Scarlet